Battle For Islam Documentary by Ziauddin Sardar

Battle For Islam Documentary by Ziauddin Sardar

Ever since the September 11 attack people interpret Islam as an extremist religion. This was all due to the fact that an Islamic terrorist group was behind this. The Muslim community in the western world have been living in a struggle ever since. For example, some countries have gone as far as to re-examining the foundation of the Islamic sharia law. Ziaudin Sardar is a British Muslim writer that traveled to reveal the story of radical change and intense soul searching in five Muslim countries: Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia. He presents a documentary “Battle for Islam”, in which he reveals that the heads of government are seeking for ways to change the image of Islam and ease Islam from the political ideology that has been introduced to the world after September 11. Sardar also examines the changes that are going to lead millions of Muslims to a future where they can co-exist peacefully with non-Islamic countries. In Pakistan Islamic parties were supported by Pakistan’s military. In 1978 the sharia law was introduced with a set of harsh punishments known as Hudud. Islamic schools in Pakistan were accused to brainwash the children and promote extremism. President Pervez introduced the policy of “enlightened moderation”, in which he seeks to encourage sensible forces in the Pakistani society to counter those negative interpretations of Islam. Indonesia is the one country with the largest population of Muslims; it represents one-fifths of the Muslim population. Since the September 11 attack Indonesia has witnessed an increase in extremism and terrorist acts. The way they tried to approach this is by proposing a policy to support solutions to problems in society and also gave greater rights to women. However these attempts failed since the fundamentalists made threats against the ones that introduced the new law. Malaysia is as diverse when it comes to languages and religions, with a 40% Muslim population. Political debate isn’t encouraged in Malaysia, the country has been criticized for its native era security laws that allows for indeterminate action of detention without charge or trial. Abdullah Badawi, the prime minister of Malaysia believed in the principles of the great Islamic civilizations of thousand years ago, it emphasizes on the importance of education and science, which is what Badawi introduced to society. Morocco is a North African Muslim country that supports the USA’s war on terror principle. It faces huge developmental challenges. King Mohammed VI made the country a constitutional monarchy in 1999. He introduced a radical new Islamic family law, in which he states that women are equal partners in the home and they also have equal property and divorce rights to men. Turkey is the one Muslim country that doesn’t follow sharia law, which is a principle rejected by most proud Muslim Turk citizens. Tayyip Erdogan is a conservative prime minister that got elected after decades of heavy military influence over politics in Turkey. Erdogan tried to introduce a section of forbidding adultery in the new penal code, however this caused a huge heated debate which ended up being rejected since it was going to lead to sweeping off Turkey from the EU membership. Ziauddin Sardar shows another side to Islam in this documentary, other than the one introduced to the world after the September 11 attack. He aimed to show the differences in Islam in different countries as his journey took place in 5 different Muslim countries in 3 continents. None of the countries he visited were in the Middle East. The Middle East is another major part of the Islamic world that also includes terrorist acts that take place in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine…etc. His journey demonstrates that the population of Muslim extremists is the minority and that their traditional legitimacy is on a retreat. What came to mind from this documentary is that most of the content lacked in depth, the material that was covered seemed like it had more to it than what was presented. Sardar in one major point he regarded women as leaders for a change, while on his journey he showed that women were targeted as part of policy changes and a point of influence. Since the western society approves in women rights and equality, this could be a great point that would begin a drift of change to the Islamic world. These changes that are taking place in the Islamic world are not certain but it shows how Islam is being reformed and open to the new changes in society.